BLACK FLAG
(The SFMC Aerospace Combat College)

Aerospace Combat Manuevering | Historical Engagement Tactics | Phases of a Modern Aerospace Engagement | Standard Tactics | Improvised Tactics

 
"In 2198, when we fought the early Klingon Aerospace Corps, we had a kill ration of nearly thirteen to one. That is to say that we shot down thirteen Klingon pilots for every one of ours we lost. By the time we fought the Cardasssians in 2350, that ratio had fallen to only three to one. Our pilots had lost their dogfighting skills, relying more and more on missiles and other 'smart weapons'. To address the problem, and to make our pilots the best in the galaxy, the STARFLEET Marine Corps established this Aerospace Combat College. Black Flag, as it is commonly called, exists for one purpose. To teach you how to engage other aerospace craft and win. You men and women are the best the Aerospace branch has to offer, but we will make you better. For the next five weeks, you will fly against expert pilots. Veterans. Aces. Each with thousands of hours of flight time, each with at least five real world kills. All of them flying equipment that closely matches Threat vehicles you will meet in the real world. You will die many times here, in practice, so that you won't have to in the real world. Welcome to Black Flag."

Critical Concepts
The Wingman. Defensively speaking, in combat, two heads are better than one. This is why all Aerospace Defense Craft have a crew of two or more. A wingman is there to keep the enemy off your tail and to help you spot things you might otherwise miss in the confusion of combat. Likewise, you are there to protect your wingman, and help him spot things he might miss. Never, ever, leave your wingman in combat. The odds of surviving a dogfight alone, against two or more enemy opponents is very low. Having a wingman raises those odds by more than double.

The "Loose Deuce". Normal procedure for a combat air patrol (CAP) is to operate in two teams of two aerospace craft each, or a "pair of pairs". The two teams fly the patrol separated by a mile or two between themselves (just at the limit of visual range). The lead flight is slightly ahead of the trailing flight, by a distance of a half mile or so. This is known as the "Loose Deuce", because it allows the maximum amount of maneuvering space between the teams if they have to engage an opponent, while keeping each other in supporting range of the other team.

SAM Dancing. The Surface to Air Missile (SAM) is a common defense available to ground defenders, since it is cheap, easily produced and fairly lethal to aerospace craft. Direct fire energy and projectile weapons also pose a threat, but the SAM is often seen. There are two methods of dealing with a SAM. First, given enough time and a SAM that is approaching from the front angle of view, you can engage it with your direct fire weapons. Modern targeting systems and rapid fire weapon systems make this possible, although more advance SAMs will attempt to evade your fire as they close the range. Second, if the SAM is launched at you from below or behind your aerospace craft, wait until it is almost to you, then break hard right or left away from it while activating your countermeasures. Aerospace craft are almost always more maneuverable than a SAM and combined with chaff or flares, this move will break the lock on your vehicle, causing the SAM to miss. Timing is critical to effectively execute this maneuver, as to early will give the SAM time to adjust its trajectory and too late will mean a hit.

Countermeasures
Countermeasures are the devices and techniques you use to keep the enemy from successfully targeting your aerospace craft. This is done by either disrupting his ability to lock sensors on you, or decoying his weapons away from you before they strike. There is a constant race to upgrade weapons systems to overcome countermeasures and vice versa.

Chaff. In the early days of aerospace combat, radar was the primary method of tracking an aircraft beyond visual range. Chaff was developed to blind and disrupt radar sensors. Thin strips of metallic foil were cut to the exact length of known enemy radar wavelengths, then dispensed from aircraft as radar homing missiles approached. The resulting "wash" of radar return signals blinded the missile, causing it to miss or detonate prematurely. Modern aerospace craft use a more sophisticated version of this, but the effects are essentially the same. Refractive crystals of kelbonite and other sensor blocking materials are ejected from the target, in the midst of a cloud of charged particles. This disrupts sensor scans through the area of chaff, allowing the target vehicle to evade. The effectiveness of chaff is depends on how close the threat sensors are to the chaff cloud, and the position of the chaff cloud relative to the target and the threat.

Flares. The most simple of all homing missiles uses an infrared sensor to guide the weapon into an aerospace craft's exhaust pipe. Despite the primitive nature of these weapons, they remain both common and dangerous. Flares are small packages of magnesite-nitron, coupled to a chemical igniter. When dispensed from the target aerospace craft, they burst into an extremely hot flaming bundle, causing infrared sensors to lock onto the flare instead of the original target.

Jammers. Electronic countermeasures are a wide variety of electronic and subspace transmitters that are collectively known as 'jammers'. When activated, they attempt to scramble a threat receiver or transmitter by sending powerful and conflicting signals at the threat unit. For example, a missile homing on a target might suddenly detect that the target was near enough to be damaged by an explosion, and then detonate. In reality, the target was still out of effective range of the missile's detonation, but had successfully jammed its rangefinding sensors.

Erratic Maneuvering (EM). While all of the above countermeasures may be employed in some fashion by starships, erratic maneuvering (EM) is unique to aerospace craft. Rapid and random changes of attitude, heading and speed make it hard for enemy gunners to predict where a fighter will be at any given moment, and therefore make it difficult to bring weapons to bear effectively. EM is most often used while approaching or leaving a target, while the fighter's weapons are unable to engage the enemy (out of range, out of ammo, etc.). This is because EM makes it impossible for a fighter to bring its own weapons to bear effectively against the enemy. Erratic maneuvers are also known as 'jinking' in some circles.

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Historical Engagement Tactics
In the early twentieth century, air-to-air combat consisted of getting close enough to shoot at the enemy with machine-guns mounted in the nose or wings of your aircraft. Because of the limitations of the ammunition available at the time, you had to get very close to your opponent in order to hit him, sometimes as close as a few hundred feet! By the end of World War Two, cannon had replaced most machine-guns, increasing the effective range of attack to almost a thousand yards. Primitive rockets and missiles were developed, and soon became advanced enough to replace aircraft guns as the primary method of engagement. Guns never quite became obsolete, as they were reliable and deadly at close range--and you almost always ran out of missiles before you ran out of ammo for your cannon.

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Acquisition/Identification of targets
Acquisition and identification of targets is the first step of an engagement. The rules of engagement for SFMC pilots prohibit firing long range weapons on unidentified targets. The unidentified sensor target that is approaching your flight could be anything from a genuine threat to a curious local citizen. It is even possible that the other aerospace craft hasn't detected you yet, since most civilian sensors are less capable than our military ones. You have to know what you are shooting at before you launch an attack. However, it isn't as easy as it sounds. There are three major things that complicate the identification process.

Shadowing: Sometimes a single sensor signal is actually two or more aerospace craft, flying very close together. This makes it difficult for an observer to distinguish the separate signals, making it appear as if only a single vehicle is approaching. Once the signal gets closer, it suddenly breaks apart to reveal two or three separate threats. This technique is known as shadowing, and is also used to conceal smaller vehicles alongside a larger one, as in certain pirate raids against convoys.

IFF problems: While IFF transponders make identification in combat a great deal more simple, they also have their limitations. Most importantly, IFF transponders can be reprogrammed by individuals with the time and equipment. Multiple code IFF units can be built, allowing the user to select any of a number of "false IDs" to be sent out. Which means the IFF signal you are receiving could be the daily mail shuttle arriving or an Orion Commerce Raider moving into weapons range.

Background Clutter: In certain terrain, especially in a planetary atmosphere, sensors may have difficulty in correctly or effectively identifying targets. This is especially true at low altitudes and around concentrations of certain kinds of ores. High density asteroid fields, areas of strong energy fields and even intensive energy weapons fire can seriously reduce a sensor's ability to detect targets.

Seeking Weapons Volley, Long Range
Once you identify a threat and you are authorized to engage it, you should engage at the longest possible range. This usually means with seeking weapons such as missiles or torpedoes. Enemy craft will also seek to engage you at the maximum possible range, using whatever form of seeking weapon they are equipped with.

Missiles. Modern self guided weapons, called missiles or drones, come in a variety of styles and characteristics. Longer range missiles (such as the RL-54 Long Lance) will be launched first, followed by those with shorter range (such as the RM-88 Hatchet). Missiles are very cost effective, as an inexpensive missile is quite capable of destroying a valuable pilot and his aerospace craft. They also deliver the same amount of damage when they hit, unlike energy weapons which are affected by range. However, missiles can also be shot down or affected by countermeasures, so they are not extremely reliable.

Plasma Weapons. Races such as the Romulans, who use plasma weapons and disrupters as standard starship weaponry will also have plasma equipped fighters. Plasma weapons are shorter ranged and less accurate than missiles, but are much less susceptible to countermeasures and a near miss by a plasma weapon can scramble your sensors and onboard electronics. A major disadvantage for plasma weapons is they take up much more space aboard an aerospace craft, due to the equipment needed for focusing and directing the plasma launcher. This makes a plasma equipped fighter less capable of carrying other weapons. For this reason, plasma equipped aerospace craft tend to be reserved for direct assault roles, although not always.

Energy Weapons Volley, Medium Range
Once you close the range enough that your direct fire energy weapons can effectively bear, engage the enemy immediately. Energy weapons are superior to seeking weapons in that they have zero flight time. They damage the target as soon as you trigger them, assuming your aim is good. There are two disadvantages associated with all energy weapons. The first is that if you have a limited endurance vehicle (such as an aerospace craft using a charge pack), they will deplete your energy reserves a little each time you fire. This fact discourages pilots from indiscriminately "hosing the sky" with their beam weapons. Secondly, all energy weapons are "range of effect" weapons, which means they do less damage the farther away the emitter is from the target.

Phasers. Phasers are the best of the long range, direct fire energy weapons available. They give the best combination of accuracy, range and damage potential. They are standard equipment on nearly all Federation aerospace craft, and on most other races as well, including Threat vehicles.

Disrupters. Disrupters are very common among Romulan and Klingon aerospace craft, as well as those races that trade technology with them (Orion Pirates, etc.). Disrupters are not as accurate or damaging as phasers, but have longer range and lower energy requirements. This makes them an ideal choice for fighters with limited endurance, so Tactical aerospace craft will often encounter disrupter equipped enemy fighters in combat.

Lasers and Masers. These weapons are almost obsolete since the development of phasers and disrupters, and are only listed here since a number of lower technology races employ them for local defense craft. It is important to remember that "almost obsolete" doesn't mean "harmless". Powerful lasers (and their microwave based counterparts) are cheap, accurate and require little power to operate. This means an aerospace craft can carry a large number of them. While they do very little damage per hit (compared to phasers, etc.), it is possible to get "nickel and dimed" to death by a single maser equipped fighter. Large numbers of such fighters can rapidly eliminated lesser numbers of phaser equipped craft by combining their firepower on targets. This is known as the "swarm of lights" in pilot jargon.

Close Combat Maneuvering
Once you have reached visual range, it gets fast and brutal as vehicles maneuver to bring weapons to bear on each other. Close combat maneuvering is characterized by low speeds (subsonic in the atmosphere and sublight in space), constant maneuvering (especially turning) and point blank weapons fire. Pilots call this "dogfighting", and it is where pilot skill has the most affect on survival.

RF Energy Weapons. Less powerful versions of the phaser, disrupter and laser (or maser) are used as short range weapons. These versions have been modified to function as rapid fire weapons, and are collectively known as "pulse weapons". Pulse phasers, pulse disrupters and pulse lasers have the same disadvantages of all energy weapons, as well as requiring more cooling equipment, using more power and being more prone to malfunction. A burst of pulse phaser fire, for example, uses as much power as a standard phaser but generates three times as much heat and is twice as prone to malfunction.

Fusion beams and Plasma cannon. Races which use plasma weapons also have shorter ranged, rapid fire versions of them available to place on small craft. They are much less accurate, however, and rarely have more than double the firing rate of the larger style of weapon. One advantage they do have is that they have a larger area of effect than other weapons, making them ideal for ground support missions and useful in shooting down incoming missiles.

Projectile Weapons. Long considered obsolete, projectile weapons have returned to common use among Tactical aerospace craft. Weapons such as the RF Gauss Gun are accurate, reliable, require a minimum of energy to operate and deliver a powerful punch. They can carry a lot of ammunition, as well, which gives the aerospace craft more endurance in a fight.

Dogfight Drones. Short ranged, simplified versions of the larger missiles are known as "Dogfighting drones", and are carried by nearly all aerospace fighter craft. The RS-9 Dagger is the most effective example of a dogfighting drone, and is standard for Federation forces (as well as other races who have copied the design).

Disengagement
At some point in a dogfight, you are going to want to leave. This is called disengagement, and may occur because you have been attacked by superior forces, your aerospace craft is low on fuel or ammo, or simply because you have more important business elsewhere. The first thing you have to do is clear any pursuit on your tail, using whatever maneuvers will accomplish that. Second, you have to be able to travel faster than anyone who would wish to pursue you. If you can't outrun the enemy, you are not going to be able to disengage--unless you destroy the enemy (and then he certainly can't outrun you, now can he?). Even if you can outrun them, you may not be able to outrun their seeking weapons. Be prepared to employ countermeasures as you extend the range between yourself and the enemy, since they often cannot resist a "parting shot" at your vehicle.

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Standard Tactics
Most tactics in aerospace combat are fairly obvious, it is just a question of choosing the correct maneuver for any given point in the engagement. Some of the more important tactics are listed below.

The Yo-Yo
Named after a simple child's toy, the Yo-Yo is an attack pattern commonly used by interceptors against an unknown target. The attacker flight angles their path directly at the enemy, passing through their formation from lower to higher altitude. As soon as the attacking flight clears the enemy formation, they execute an Immelman turn and pass back through the enemy on a course approximately 180 degrees from their original. Done properly, this gives the attacking flight one excellent weapons pass, followed quickly by another (usually guns only) pass through a disorganized and scattering enemy formation.

The Iron Cross
Four aerospace craft working in tandem perform this maneuver, usually as a ground attack mission. Two aerospace craft can do it, but it is risky as neither has a wingman to help if unexpected enemy aerospace fighters are encountered. Approaching the target area, but before they enter enemy scanning range (or maximum range of enemy weapons believed to be in the area) the team splits into two separate groups. One approaches at low altitude from one direction, while the second group approaches from a direction 90 degrees perpendicular to the first. Their attack runs are timed so that the second group passes over the target 15 to 30 seconds after the first group. This accomplishes three things. First, the target area is hit from multiple directions, making it difficult to determine where the attackers are coming from (and which way they are going when they leave). Second, the explosions from the first pass will be subsiding so they do not damage the second flight, and may allow the second flight to select targets that survived the first strike. Third, defenders that survive the first attack and remove themselves from cover to fight fires, assess damage, man defensive weapons, etc. are caught in the open by the second wave of ordnance. This is particularly useful in suppression of air defenses. Weapon emplacements and SAM launchers that survive the first attack, then expose themselves as they fire on the departing flight, are destroyed by the second flight's attack.

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Threading the needle
In any kind of congested terrain, such as asteroid belts or extremely low altitude atmospheric flight, there are lots of things that can damage or destroy an aerospace craft. Leading an attacker through a high speed, high risk chase through such obstacles can result in the poorer pilot crashing. It definitely takes skill, nerve and desperation to attempt such a maneuver at maximum speed.

Brake check
More effective against traditional atmospheric craft, this maneuver can also be employed against lower quality pilots and equipment. Simply put, the defender uses his thrusters, AG or maneuver drive and inertial dampers to drastically decrease speed. This causes the unwary or inexperienced pilot to overshoot, placing them in the defender's weapons arc for a quick shot. Unfortunately, against a skilled pilot or one with better equipment, this maneuver fails, leaving you helpless in the attacker's weapons arc, and at low speed. This just about guarantees your destruction.

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Material on this page ruthlessly plagerized from the SFMC's Aerospace Branch Manual by Matt Kelley and available from SFMC Academy.

WebPage designed & maintained by Kevin "MAC" Nulty